Cicada'a Pledge
by Taidhe
Summary: Duo goes out into the forest, makes a pledge to the land. I really like this one, don't know why.
1. Default Chapter

A motorcycle with two passengers roared up to a small, wooden house screened in a dark green forest. Quatre peered out the window from behind a blackout curtain, a blob in the center of a sheer, startling ray of light in the darkness outside.  
  
"Guys! Duo and Heero are back!" he called into the house, replacing the shade and quenching the dangerous gleam. The two black figures dismounted the bike, and one turned to put it away. Removing his helmet, Duo murmured to Heero.  
  
"I'm not going in for a while. Tell the guys I'll say hello tomorrow morning." Heero only nodded in reply and finished concealing the bike. Then he turned at disappeared into the house, momentarily sending out another, larger shaft of light to strangle in the deep blackness all around.  
  
Duo looked over his shoulder once, then practically skipped into the woods. His goal was under a half mile away, a large pine tree in the center of tangled undergrowth that only the knowledgeable could navigate in silence. As Duo slipped through the thorny brush calmly, his posture relaxed, his breath moaning into the air as he dropped every struggle, trauma, and stressful moment from the week-long mission into the scrub. Reaching the tree at last, Duo began to climb. Up and up and up and up, farther, as far as he could go. Not until he reached his own special place in the tree did he allow himself to think, and even then it wasn't anything important.  
  
You are the oddest tree I've ever seen. You're a pine tree, but your bark isn't rough. It feels like the bark of a white birch, but the color of it is like a maple. The needles are too long and too soft, too. They're like the needles of a Southern Pine, and this is too far north for those. Heh. You're a mutt, just like me. And you're perfect. Duo wasn't sure how he'd found the tree. But there was a spot, about forty feet up in it, where the trunk had broken off. Six thick limbs had grown up crown-like around the broken off spot, making a perfect seating place, as well as making him invisible to eyes both on the ground and in the sky.  
  
The tree gently swayed in the wind, needles brushing dryly against his hands and face. Duo took off his jacket, hung it over a convenient branch next to him, to feel the needles float over his arms as well. The night felt warmer than it really was, and the dark gray clouds obscuring the sky were mesmerizing in their slow, bulky movement.  
  
Duo sought out these woods, this tree, because he was tired of the press of people around me constantly, tired of fabricated matter that hold up people's lives like pillars, tired of conjured wars and mock peace. He wanted something real, and the tree gave him that. Duo slipped off his shoes and socks, hanging them on less convenient branches where they wouldn't be knocked off. Almost as an afterthought, he removed his shirt as well.  
  
The breath of the wind brushed against Duo, rocking the tree like a mother rocks her child. The smooth, yet rough, bark pressed against his skin comfortingly and the clouds shifted ponderously, uncaringly overhead. No beam of light broke through from anywhere, and Duo sat in total darkness.  
  
What the hell. Why not?  
  
Without hurry, his pants were also hung over a bough, to absorb the piney scent of the great tree. Duo sat in it's embrace like a newborn child in his mothers arms. He didn't think, he didn't fidget, he didn't chatter. He sat. And for a while, he wasn't sitting. He just *was*. After a time, Duo couldn't say how long, he come out of his trancelike state feeling like he'd slept for a week. Nothing had changed around him, but he felt… calmer, certainly. Content, definitely. Happier, maybe. Perhaps if everyone had time, time to just *be*, wars wouldn't happen. But I doubt it.  
  
Duo stood up, stretching into the dark, reveling in the quiet. Reminded of the war, of the risks he fought everyday, Duo suddenly wanted something… more than a memory. Having something substantial, *anything* that might last to remind him of this ephemeral instant was incredibly important, somehow.  
  
Duo leaned over and reached into a limp pocket, pulled out his jackknife. He flipped it open, bent to carve something in the tree, and paused. No. I spoil enough as it is. Not here, not now. The jackknife was closed and replaced.  
  
He had another idea, and this one was much better. Duo stood up again, reached up as high as he could, and grabbed another branch. Slowly, carefully, he worked his way up to heights truly unsafe, and for a moment, hung suspended there. Swiftly, he unsnapped the gold chain of his cross, the only clothing not yet removed. Slipping off the cross and holding it between his teeth, Duo reached around the main trunk until he found a branch on the opposite side. He wrapped the glinting chain around the limb, tugging on it to be sure it would stay put.  
  
"I'll come back. Before heaven and hell and the earth beneath me, someday, I will come back." Duo whispered fiercely into the uncaring night. One lone cicada answered him.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey guys, I'm back!" Duo grinned cheerily into the house. "Didja miss me?" His grin pasted firmly in place, Duo marched into the living room and greeted his friends. Some conversation and a TV show later, the inevitable question came up.  
  
"Duo? Where's your cross?" someone asked. Duo fielded the question easily.  
  
"The chain is somewhere back in the woods. Probably got hung up in a tree branch or something, cause I couldn't see it when the cross fell to the ground. It's in my pocket right now." Not quite a lie. The cross *had* fallen to the ground when Duo dropped it, and he couldn't see the chain when he looked for it from the ground, either.  
  
"I think I have a gold chain that'll work as a replacement. Lydia gave it to me a few holidays back." Quatre suggested hesitantly. Duo didn't ^seem^ upset, but…  
  
"Hey, thanks man. If you'll show me where it is, I'll get it, and then go to bed, I'm bushed." Duo thanked Quatre.  
  
"No problem. It's up in my room." Quatre replied, and the two of them climbed the stairs. Heero, Trowa, and Wufei went back to watching the news.  
  
Somewhere in the forest, a tree winked goldenly and a cicada sung of an unbreakable pledge. 


	2. Cicada's Song

Karel climbed out of her window and scaled the wall beneath, her movements silenced by grasshoppers and other singing insects. She hit the ground running. I love this woods…too bad *she* thinks something will eat me in it… She navigated the thorny undergrowth competently, slipping in and out like a deer, always heading east.  
  
Two months ago, Karel had moved into her "grandfather"s house with her mother, because "Mom" (privately called Helen) thought Grandpa needed someone to look after him. Karel snorted silently. Duo no more needed or wanted someone looking after him than he wanted to be called grandfather!  
  
But two months ago, in her forest forays, Karel had discovered perfection in nature. A tree, which beckoned to her, perfect for climbing into, sitting for hours, hiding, even for writing in, she'd discovered recently. But tonight, her goal was not the waterproof bag of creativity hanging from one branch. Her goal was something Duo had told her lay hidden there, something he could no longer reach, because of his disability.  
  
Karel abandoned thinking, and just ran. The cicadas sang faster, as if responding to the pounding of her feet. She left no trail behind her, and only she could perceive the trail before her. All too soon, it rose before her, crowning the horizon with its odd virtues. Karel swarmed up the soft gray-brown bark like a squirrel, inhaling the scent of the long, smooth pine needles. As she reached the nest-like crown, she paused at the warning chirrup of another cicada. This should be written  
  
She sat, and pulled out her notebook, but didn't open it yet. The waving branches beguiled her, the faint breeze soothed her. Slowly, Karel let go of her daily worries; let her eyes close in contentment. The whisper of the forest filled her mind. As Karel caught and held the peace of the surrounding land, she carefully opened her notebook and picked up her pen.  
  
Long after the scritch of writing discontinued though, Karel continued to sit. The moon rose ever higher, its rays caressing her face. The brightness of the rays was what finally woke her. That, and a stray disturbing thought that would not go away.  
  
Helen would sell this. She will, as soon as she can prove Duo is senile. That's really why we are here. Sharply, Karel shook her head to clear it's tainted thoughts, focusing instead on the cicada's song. She stood up, as high as she could, grabbed a branch, stepped up a foot higher. She did this until any higher would have passed dangerous and become suicidal. Then, she reached around the trunk, and found a thick branch right where Duo had told her it would be. The fact he can give directions so clear disproves every theory Helen has. Carefully feeling to the base of the branch without losing her balance, Karel came upon a distinctly foreign metallic knot. Her fingers paused for a minute, then recognized the bowline knot and quickly undid it. Unwrapping the chain carefully, Karel looked at her prize.  
  
A silver line of light lay seductively across her hand. The links were so small they ran into one another, and as the moon glinted off of its small facets Karel could swear she held a moonbeam. She brought it closer, turning it over, and blinked in surprise. The other side was as sun-golden as the first moon-blessed! Karel tilted her head and brushed some dirt off the enigma. One side of the links were still silvery-white, the other side still golden.  
  
The answer dawned on Karel. The sun and moon, after all these years, must have bleached the chain itself. I didn't know gold could be bleached. She sat back into her seat in the tree, and put the chain on. She started putting away her writing tools, but stopped. The tree again beckoned her, demanded something. Something substantial, something binding. Karel reached slowly into her pocket, and pulled out a pendant she never dared wear. Carefully, she caressed the worn smooth surface of the pentacle, then placed it into a crevice she'd discovered a long time ago. It fit perfectly, and would not come out accidentally. And Helen would sell this place to a strip mall company…  
  
"I'll save it. I'll save you. Before the Summerland's take me, this place will be safe forever." She spoke, beginning in a whisper, but Karel's voice swelled on the last few words, startling her with the realization on how much she meant it. Swiftly, before she felt embarrassed, Karel descended and trudged back to the house.  
  
* * *  
  
"Duo." Karel crept into his room later that night.  
  
"Yeah Karel?" Duo sounded as though he'd been awake the entire time.  
  
"I found it. I…" Karel paused.  
  
"You what?" Duo asked gently.  
  
"Would you… give this place to me? In your will? The house and the land you own, everything? It's important." Karel said hesitantly. It sounded so greedy…  
  
"Why is it so important?" Duo asked carefully.  
  
"Helen will sell it. Probably to a strip mall or a lumber company. That must *never* happen." Karel said desperately.  
  
"Yes, I know. And she tries to even before I'm rolled into my grave, am I right?" Duo sounded like he knew everything, even unto her hidden notebook and the tree-claimed pentacle.  
  
"Yes. She's trying to get you proved mentally incompetent through senility…" Karel choked over the words.  
  
"She can't. Government is protecting my interests, 'cause they owe me big one. And the will… of course. It's already been done. And the interesting thing is… if land is heired through a family over three generations, it by law becomes a historical park." Duo stated this almost randomly.  
  
"Does that mean… if I will it to my children…?"  
  
"Yes. Untouchable. How convenient, neh?" Duo smiled at the happiness suffusing Karel's face.  
  
"Thank you Duo. Our tree will be safe!" Karel heard a noise in the hallway, and fled back to her room, lest Helen catch them conspirating. Duo went back to sleep.  
  
And somewhere in the forest, a tree bowed to the wind and a cicada sung of an unbreakable pledge… fulfilled.  
  
Fin. 


End file.
